Exposed McCann troll was mired in loneliness Illawarra Mercury
By ELIZABETH GRICE
Oct. 18, 2014
Brenda Leyland was found dead after being outed as an obsessive Twitter abuser of Kate and Gerry McCann, but her case confounds stereotypes.
A likeable, churchgoing woman of no obviously strong views, she seemed more interested in gardening, photography and quizzes than any solitary obsession with tweeting. She also had a passionate, innocuous leading role in the village's annual scarecrow competition.
Yet, hiding behind the alias @sweepyface, she insinuated that the McCanns were implicated in their three-year-old daughter's disappearance during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007 - a theme that had obsessed her for four years. According to the website BuzzFeed, she was sometimes posting more than 50 tweets a day, even on Christmas Eve, from 7am until midnight.
Mrs Leyland tweeted triumphantly at the height of her persecution: "You can move to France, anywhere, but social media is everywhere! Our memories are long, Maddie deserves it."
Her message seemed mild compared with some of the foul-mouthed stuff that has continued to rain down on the McCanns - but there was menace in it, too. Questioned by Sky News reporter Martin Brunt, she said she was "entitled" to tweet as she did - though her justification, without the protective cloak of anonymity, sounded far from confident.
Brunt, one of the most respected television reporters in the business, was invited into Mrs Leyland's house and spent time talking to her about her concerns over the McCann case off-camera. Inevitably, he has himself now become the victim of trolling, with a Facebook page set up under the title "Sack Martin Brunt".
What he could not have known when he approached her was the personal tragedy behind Mrs Leyland's confessed obsession. She was estranged from her eldest son, Daniel, and never spoke of him. Saturday, the day when her body was found in Leicester's Marriott hotel, was Daniel's 37th birthday.A neighbour said: "Deep down it must have hurt that he cut his mum out of his life. Whether that made her anti the McCanns, who seemed to have a very loving, supportive and happy family, we will never know. We were friends but grew apart, she was a one-way ticket. She could be quite nasty and controlling.
"When Madeleine first went missing she used to go over to her home village all the time. She used to go to the local pub and the shops telling everyone what she thought about the family. It seemed very odd behaviour."
Mrs Leyland's younger son, Ben, 30, lives in Los Angeles where he works for a law firm. He posted a brief emotional tribute on Facebook saying: "I love you mum and I will miss you forever. I am love and I am light, thanks to you."
In the absence of the one person who seemed to value her, such village friendships as she had sound poor substitutes for meaningful family life. Mrs Leyland's mother died in 2004 and she had distant relations in Australia, but few in Britain, other than her estranged son. A friend described her as "lonely beyond belief".
A neighbour in Burton Overy whose son is a friend of Mrs Leyland's son, Ben, said: "I just can't understand why she would have posted those things. No-one in this village can. But then, for her to take her life is even more inexplicable. She just packed her bags and took off."
Another villager suggested the threat of being unmasked and prosecuted was overwhelming.
"She was a proud, very bright articulate and upstanding lady and the thought of a prison sentence hanging over her would have devastated her. Sadly, she couldn't live with herself."
London Daily Telegraph
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